Why Obama is bombing the Caliph

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is "2030", also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

The GWOT, since its conceptualization 13 years ago, in the
aftermath of 9/11, is the gift that keeps on giving. And no gift
is bigger than a Transformer Al-Qaeda on steroids – bigger,
brasher, and wealthier than anything Osama Bin Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri had ever dreamt of; the IS (Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS) of Caliph
Ibrahim, former Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

US President Barack Obama, before deploying his golf holidays in
Martha’s Vineyard, casually dropped that bombing the Caliph’s
goons in Iraq will take months. One may interpret it as another
layer of the Obama administration’s self-avowed “Don't Do
Stupid Stuff” foreign policy doctrine, not so subtly mocked
by prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Shock and
Awe in 2003 destroyed the whole of Baghdad’s infrastructure in
only a few hours.

Obama also confirmed the US was showering Iraq again with
humanitarian bombing “to protect American interests”
(first and foremost) and, as an afterthought, “human rights
in Iraq.”

One could not possibly expect Obama to declare the US would now
bomb“our” allies the House of Saud,
who have supported/financed/weaponized IS, in Syria and Iraq. The
same erstwhile ISIS that thoroughly enjoyed the marvels of US
military training in a secret base in Jordan.

Obama also could not possibly explain why the US always supported
ISIS in Syria and now decides to bomb them in Iraq. Oh, the
perils of ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’.

So a quick translation applies.

Obama’s bombing of the Caliph’s goons has absolutely nothing to
do with US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power’s much beloved R2P
(‘responsibility to protect’) doctrine – as in the
responsibility to protect up to 150,000 Yazidis, not to mention
Kurds and remaining Christians, from a ‘potential’
genocide carried out by the Caliph’s goons.

The whole fighter jets + drones bombing exercise, lasting
‘months’, has to do with the Benghazi syndrome.

The Caliph’s goons were dead set on conquering Irbil - the
capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) is led by the wily Massoud Barzani – a long-time US
client/vassal.

The US maintains a consulate in Irbil. Crammed with CIA types.
Or, as the New York Times so lovingly puts it, “thousands of Americans.”

Enter Benghazi. This is an electoral year. Obama is absolutely
terrified of another Benghazi – which Republicans have been
trying non-stop to blame on his administration’s incompetence.
The last thing Obama needs is the Caliph’s goons killing
‘diplomats’ in Erbil.

That would certainly raise a tsunami of questions all over again
about the shady CIA weapon-smuggling racket – as in arming Syrian
‘rebels’ with weapons from Libya - at the time Benghazi
took place. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, of course,
also knew about it all. But then, and especially now, no one
should know that the CIA was weaponizing the bulk of the future
Caliph’s forces.

Regime change or bust

Obama said this humanitarian bombing adventure could last
“months,” but in fact it could last only days.

The price is cheap: regime change. As in former Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki blocked from having a third term.

That explains why all hell broke loose in Baghdad, as Iraqi
parliamentarians clearly saw which way the wind is blowing.
Haider al-Abadi was chosen by new President Fuad Masoum, a Kurd,
as the new prime minister – hours after Maliki positioned Special
Forces in strategic sites in and around the Green Zone and may
(or may not) have tried to stage a coup. Maliki maintains that
Masoum violated the Iraqi constitution by not selecting him to
form a new cabinet; after all, his State of Law bloc got the most
votes in last April’s parliamentary elections.

Obama, predictably, was delighted. But whatever happens next, Maliki won’t
go down quietly – to say the least. Even as the predominant
narrative among Sunnis, a substantial number of Kurds and even
some Shiite political blocs is that Maliki antagonized Sunnis
all-out; and that’s what drove them to support the Caliph en
masse (although now many are having second thoughts.)

As for the KRG and Barzani, in the Obama administration scheme of
things, what matters is that they should not declare
independence. As long as Barzani promises to Obama that Kurdistan
stays inside Iraq, the KRG will get more bombs and drones and the
‘humanitarian’ operation will speed up. US Special
Forces are already deployed all over the huge area where the
Caliphate borders the KRG, in so-called desert forward operating
positions. And the US for all practical purposes is now the Iraqi
Air Force against the Caliph.

Watch ‘the Hillarator’

This Obama administration warped R2P – protection for Americans
first, refugees second – will accomplish nothing for a key
reason; no bombing – ‘humanitarian’ or otherwise -
exterminates a political/religious movement, even one as demented
as IS. The Caliphate prospers, somewhat, and expands, because
unlike that pathetic Free Syrian Army (FSA) it’s winning
territory, desert and urban, in both Syria and Iraq; an area
bigger than Great Britain already, holding at least 6 million
people.

As for the much-peddled Washington myth of ‘good’ and
‘bad’ jihadists, the Caliphate also exploded it.
Virtually every jihadi Washington - and Riyadh – weaponized and
trained in Jordan and in the Turkey-Syria border is now among the
Caliph’s goons, wallowing in cash raised from oil smuggling,
hardcore blackmail and ‘donations’, and weaponized to
their teeth after looting four Iraqi divisions and a Syrian
brigade.

As for the GWOT gift, it will keep on giving in a bigger and
bigger bang because of the dream narrative now displayed for
every aspiring multinational jihadi; we are now defending our
Caliphate from the mighty Crusader Air Force, no less.

The US lost the war in Iraq, miserably, only nine days after the
fall of Baghdad, in April 2003. No ‘humanitarian’
bombing will turn it into a victory. And no
‘humanitarian’ bombing will finish the Caliphate off.

As for prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, she’s taking no prisoners.
She insists the US should have bombed Syria in the first place;
then there would be no Caliphate. But now she worries the Caliph
will attack Europe and even the US (“I’m thinking a lot about
containment, deterrence and defeat”).

Predictably positioning herself, Clinton could not but totally
dismiss Obama’s foreign policy doctrine, a.k.a. ‘Don’t do
stupid stuff’: “‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an
organizing principle.” So the world will have to wait until
2017, when she’s finally able to implement her own
doctrine/organizing principle: “We came, we saw, he
died.”

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.